CHICO — It’s been said to not look a gift horse in the mouth, but the Butte Humane Society says its opposition to $100,000 the city allocated to design a new shelter is in the best interest of the community’s stray dogs and cats.

When the Chico City Council approved the city’s 2010-2011 budget June 15, it set aside $100,000 for the architectural design of a new shelter at the Fair Street site where the current shelter is located.

The shelter has long been in need of repair, with its condition described as “appalling” in the recently released 2009-2010 Butte County Grand Jury Report.

As the city’s point person on the city-owned and Humane Society-operated shelter, Assistant City Manager John Rucker suggested the city dedicate funding to design work for a new shelter.

He said although the city may not currently have the money to construct a shelter, it could progress on plans for a new facility.

He presented the idea to the Butte Humane Society Board of Directors in May and to the council during the June budget workshop.

But Rucker said Tuesday night’s council meeting was the first time he heard an official response from the organization regarding the plans, and to his surprise, the funding was not warmly received.

Standing before the council, society Executive Director Christine Fixico said her group was “involved in no way with the generation of this idea” and said she would prefer the city not spend the money on designing a new building on a site where the society doesn’t want to remain.

Shelter Planners of America and the Butte County Grand Jury Report both identified a need to construct a new facility at a different site, Fixico said.

Fixico said if the city wants to expand the shelter at the old site, a better alternative would be to put the $100,000 into repairs at the facility, as the city’s plans include maintaining the old facility in the new expansion.

Wednesday afternoon during a tour of the shelter, Fixico said she spoke out against the allocation to communicate the organization’s concerns.

Fixico said the shelter has outgrown its current location to the point that administrative offices and a warehouse for the shelter are located across the street.

“It’s hard for us to visualize how this could all be accomplished on this property,” Fixico said. “We’re using just about every spare piece of property right now for animals.”

As she stood outside in the 90-degree weather looking at kennels filled with barking dogs, Fixico said she welcomes the city’s initiative to address problems with the shelter.

But she said the city should take care of the facility’s immediate needs with the $100,000 while finding a more efficient solution that expands the shelter in another location.

Tuesday night, Councilor Larry Wahl expressed the same desire, saying the shelter’s current site is “inadequate and substandard.”

“What they need is a new location and until we get a new location, they’re looking for repairs to be made to the one they’ve got,” Wahl said.

But the rest of the council did not agree with Wahl, with Councilor Scott Gruendl saying spending money to design a new shelter better addresses the problems at the facility.

“If we want to spend that money on existing repairs, that does not move us forward … The real solution here is to come up with a fix that is long-term and spending that $100,000 in a different way than what is proposed by the city manager does not move us in the direction that we need to go,” Gruendl said.

Gruendl noted that the city “cannot be the sole villain” for the condition of the shelter.

The city pays the Humane Society $350,000 a year for the cost of housing stray animals for the state-mandated five-day holding period.

But after that, the society, which rents the shelter from the city, bears responsibility for the care of the animals.

Rucker told the council Tuesday that the city has also invested tens of thousands of dollars into repairs of the site over the past few years.

Even so, Rucker, the council and Fixico all agree that something more needs to be done at the facility.

The council approved the budget with the $100,000 design work allocation by a 6-1 vote with Wahl dissenting.

Wednesday, Fixico said although she’s not thrilled the council ultimately decided to spend the money on designing a new shelter, she will work with the city to move forward on the plans.

Still, with a new shelter most likely years away from completion, Fixico said she doesn’t want the city or the general public to forget that the shelter still has pressing repairs that need to be prioritized.

Wahl expressed the same sentiments Tuesday, and though he was out-voted on how to spend the $100,000, he said his ultimate end goal, like the council’s, is simply to see a new facility constructed.

“We can’t just keep adding bailing wire and bubble gum to the site that we have now and call it good,” Wahl said. “It’s woefully lacking and we need a new shelter.”

Staff writer Toni Scott can be reached at 896-7767 or tscott@chicoer.com.